Event: Heritage Open Day 2019

On Sunday 15th September, Monkton Nature Reserve is again taking part in the national Heritage Open Days Event.

Heritage Open Days is England’s largest festival of history and culture. Every year in September, places across the country throw open their doors to celebrate their heritage, community and history. The dates for the full national event are 13-22nd September. It is a chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences free.

Monkton Nature Reserve is taking part because of its industrial heritage as a former quarry. Quarrying dates back more than 200 years, with the first recorded excavation of chalk dating to 1799, and it is an example of how a ‘brownfield’ site can be returned to a natural state through sensitive management. Our habitats, being chalk grassland and chalk woodland, would have been typical of a bygone untouched rural Kent countryside.

The Reserve will have free entrance on Sunday 15th September, and, as well as pond dipping, we will have birds of prey on display.